Firefighters Rescue Wheelchair-Bound Man From Tulsa House Fire

TULSA, Oklahoma -
Firefighters rescued a wheelchair-bound Tulsa man, trapped in his burning home. It happened Wednesday afternoon in a neighborhood near Apache and North Yale.

Firefighters said the man called 911 from inside his home, saying he couldn't get out. When they got to the house, they realized, there was no way the man could have gotten out on his own.

A shattered window helped save the man's life.

"He had busted the window trying to get a little air," said Arthur Candler with the Tulsa Fire Department.

Candler is also a lifesaver. He's the Tulsa firefighter who pulled the man from his burning home just in time.

"They said it was a pretty good fire going on off in the kitchen, so it could have been a lot worse if we hadn't got here as quick as we did," Candler said.

The victim is wheelchair bound, and Tulsa firefighters said when the man's refrigerator malfunctioned and burst into flames, he had no way of getting through the smoke to any doors and was trapped inside.

"Pretty much smoked up the whole house, burned up the wall and was starting to get in the attic when firefighters arrived," said Captain Stan May with the Tulsa Fire Department.

As soon as they got to the house, Candler kicked in the door, grabbed the man and pulled him to safety.

Paramedics bandaged the victim's hand, where it was cut from the window's broken glass, but other than that, and being a little shaken up, firefighters said the man was in good spirits and thankful to be alive, and grateful for a hero who said he was just doing his job.

"It's always good when we can leave a situation better than when we came," Candler said.

Firefighters weren't able to say what caused the refrigerator to malfunction.

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